In collaboration with Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the Jewish Women's Archive has developed the following traditional Jewish text studies to complement the primary sources and activities found in the Living the Legacy lesson plans.

Each traditional text is paired with suggestions for the lesson plans to which it is most applicable and is followed by a series of questions to encourage students to explore thematic connections between these texts and those primary source texts found in the other parts of the curriculum. With few exceptions, the accompanying questions are general enough to work with any of the listed lesson plans (and likely others as well), and will inspire discussion that brings new layers of meaning to both the traditional text and the lesson plan.

Civil Rights

• Genesis 32:22-32 (Jacob's dream/Israel as struggle with God)
• Esther 4:1-17 (Mordechai's plea to Esther)
• Exodus 2:11-22 (Moses kills Egyptian/intervenes in Jewish argument/gets water for Zipporah)
• Exodus 1:1-21 (midwives)
• Shabbat 54b (Responsibility for the sins of others)
• Numbers 27:1-11 (B'not Zelophehad)
• Isaiah 58: 3-7 (Is this the fast I desire?)
• Texts about Tokh'ha (rebuke)
• Texts on the Ger (stranger)
• Texts about responsibility to help people

Labor

• Mishnah, Bava Metzia 7:1
• Mishnah, Pirkei Avot 3:17
• Exodus/Shemot 22:20-23
• Exodus/Shemot 22:20
• Leviticus/Vayikra 19:13
• Mishnah, N’darim 49b
• Excerpt from the Living Wage Teshuvah
• Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzia 83a
• Genesis/Bereishit 1:26-30
• Deuteronomy/Devarim 8:7-10
• Birkat HaMazon (Grace After Meals)
• Shulchan Arukh, 16th Century
• Avot de Rabbi Natan 31:1